Albert Yamamoto was born in 1927 in Seattle, Washington. He grew up during the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States]. His parents operated a hotel, and in addition, his mother would do farm work during the summers. Yamamoto and his siblings often went to the farm as well. He had a sister that lived in Japan, and another older sister he grew up with. He also had two younger siblings that were nine years and 12 years younger than him. He grew up in a Japanese American community and never had any Caucasian friends. After regular school, he went to Japanese language school, which he did not care for. In 1940, Yamamoto was a senior in high school when his father took him and his sister to Japan for another sister's wedding. He was not excited about the trip. The trip over was very rough due to the weather conditions and the ship could not make much headway. Many people on board became seasick, however Yamamoto did not. He befriended a boy the same age as him. When they landed in Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan], they met with their relatives and then took a trip to south Japan to their parent's hometown. They returned to Tokyo for the wedding. He was ill and could not attend the wedding, but he was well enough to go to the theater while they were visiting Tokyo. His family then returned to his parent's hometown. Yamamoto and his family travelled more of the country while they were visiting, including Hiroshima [Annotator's Note: Hiroshima, Japan] to visit a friend. Albert's father returned to the United States in 1940 and left Albert and his sister to spend some time with their grandparents. While seeing his father off, Yamamoto ran into an acquaintance from Seattle who was in Japan studying at a university. The acquaintance warned Albert to leave with his father because of the question of safety. The young man did not heed his own advice, got conscripted into the Japanese Army, and died in the Philippines. At the time, Yamamoto preferred to go back to Seattle with his father, but he had no control over the matter. His grandparents were strangers to him at the time and he did not want to attend school in Japan.

Albert Yamamoto [Annotator's Note: a Japanese American who went to Japan in 1940] was enrolled in school as a fifth grader and lived with his grandparents in their small town, called Mitsukue [Annotator's Note: in Ehemi, Japan]. After a year, he had caught up with his studies and was put in a class more suitable to his age. He looked different than most of the students in his class. He wore his hair long and did not wear a uniform. Many younger kids thought he was a teacher and often bowed to him when they saw him around town. He was not required to participate in outdoor activities. In June 1941, he cut his hair to a more Japanese style because a teacher at school convinced him to. His family home was on the waterfront and Yamamoto had a good view of the harbor and the training of the midget submarines [Annotator's Note: Type A Ko-hyoteki midget submarine] for the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was not aware that this operation was very top secret and took a photograph of himself with submarines in the background. He was rowing a boat one day when a submarine popped in front of him. He was shocked at first but realized what it was and continued on his way. At one point military officers were quartered in his town. One non-commissioned officer came and visited his family's house to relax and get away from military life. Yamamoto later learned that this officer died in the Sydney, Australia raids [Annotator's Note: air raids on Australia by the Japanese from February 1942 to November 1943]. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto felt awkward about the situation. He knew he was an American in an enemy country. Fortunately for him, no one treated him wrongly because of his American status. He first heard about the attack on the radio. Yamamoto was initially shocked by the whole event and wanted to return to the United States to his parents, but it was impossible. During the time that Yamamoto was in Japan, his grandparents filed for him to reclaim his Japanese citizenship so he could attend public school. His application was received by the appropriate government entity on 8 December 1941 and he was accepted in January 1942. The officer who granted the certificate of citizenship to him was General Tojo [Annotator's Note: Hideki Tojo (Tōjō); former Imperial Japanese Army General and prime minister of Japan].

Albert Yamamoto [Annotator's Note: a Japanese American living with his grandparents in Japan during World War 2] attended Hokuyu Middle School in the city of Matsuyama [Annotator's Note: Matsuyama, Japan] which was a paramilitary school. Not conforming or following orders from one's superiors would result in corporal punishment. One of his teachers did not care for him and the fact that he was an American, so he picked on Yamamoto and slapped him around. Hokuyu was far away enough from Mitsukue [Annotator's Note: where his grandparents lived in Ehime, Japan] that Albert and the other children resided in a boarding house. He was taught core subjects, one of which was English. Since he was already fluent in English, the class was very boring to him. One day he was reading a novel in class and his teacher caught him. The teacher reprimanded him in front of the whole class. As the war progressed, food quality and quantity dramatically declined. He often rode his bicycle to the outskirts of the city to buy fruit from farmers. Because able bodied men were conscripted into the military, Yamamoto and his friends were forced to help with patriotic labor by helping on the farms. His second year he helped construct air raid stations, which meant a lot of digging. In his third year, there were no classes, just labor, and in the fourth year saw the students were sent to a chemical factory to work. They lived in nearby dormitories. In April 1945, Yamamoto got sick during the chemical factory work and was sent home to his grandparents to recover. He never returned to the factory. [Annotator's Note: Video cuts to black at 0:50:09.000 and returns at 0:50:42.000.] During school, the students gathered in the auditorium to listen to a patriotic speech. The speech consisted of hating one's enemy and loving one's country. At the very end of the speech, applications to the Navy Junior Pilot Training Corps were handed out to all the students. Out of fear, Yamamoto completed the application. He later learned that his application was discarded because he was already part of a military education program.

Albert Yamamoto [Annotator's Note: a Japanese American living in Japan during World War 2] was attending school in Matsuyama, Japan which required him to work at a chemical plant to help with the war production. In July 1945, Yamamoto was given a notice to appear for a pre-induction physical for the army. Once he had his physical, he was eligible for the draft, but war ended shortly after he had his physical. Air raids began over his grandparent's hometown because they lived near a harbor. The planes targeted small ships. One day, Yamamoto was taking a nap when he was awakened by machine gun bullets hitting a ship in the harbor. He and his family evacuated the house and went to a house behind their property. After the raid, his family returned and saw that a bullet had damaged glass sliding doors and the roof. After another bombardment, Yamamoto noticed that several fish were stunned and floating in the water, so he got a net and brought them in. His family had fish to eat for several days. His family ate a lot of vegetables and sweet potatoes. They did not have any meat or chicken during the war. The scariest moment of his life was when he was on a boat in the harbor when a plane came through and began firing in their direction. While he was recovering at his grandparent's house [Annotator's Note: after developing an exposure of poison working at a chemical plant], the city of Matsuyama was firebombed, and which included his school. A few weeks after the bombing Albert went to investigate. Only the assembly hall and alumnae house remained. During the bombing, Yamamoto could see the red sky of the city in the distance. He was very sad, but it was common for cities of Japan to be bombed at this time. When he returned to school, he remained there until March of 1946. He resumed classes after the bombing even though the conditions were difficult, and food was scarce. They were only given two meals a day, one meal being gruel [Annotator's Note: a type of porridge]. His grandfather was able to procure Yamamoto with a bag of dry fish, which in turn, he bartered it for other supplies. He would also steal potatoes and eat them raw. He washed his clothes in a very primitive matter, as well as bathing. He washed his clothes and himself in a metal tub out in the open, near a streetcar track.

In October of 1945 United States forces came to occupy Matsuyama [Annotator's Note: Matsuyama, Japan] and had a formal surrender meeting with the mayor. Albert Yamamoto [Annotator's Note: a Japanese American living Japan during World War 2] was selected to be an interpreter because the interpreter coming from Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan] was late and the United States Army colonel could not understand the teachers that were in Matsuyama. Yamamoto was picked up from the school and asked to interpret because someone remembered he was American. [Annotator's Note: Yamamoto's coughing interrupts the interview at 1:19:30.000. He eats a cough drop and it makes noises as the interview continues.] Here he was a child who was sitting between a United States colonel and a Japanese general near the mayor of Matsuyama and being very aware of what he must smell like. Access to soap and clothing and baths had been very restricted just like the food at the time. Thankfully the interpreter from Tokyo showed up. After this event, the mayor asked Yamamoto to work for him for a week at the mayor's office and help perform chores. One day, an American major came to his dorm doing reconnaissance of the city. The Japanese teacher and the major could not understand each other, so Yamamoto stepped in to help. The major asked Yamamoto to accompany him throughout the city that day. Later, the Americans set up an open encampment. Yamamoto went there one day looking for a Japanese American soldier. He found one who happened to be a classmate of his cousin. Through this soldier, Yamamoto was able to communicate with his parents who had moved after the war. After he graduated from school in March 1946, he moved to Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan] planning to attend a university. He stopped at the American Consulate and learned he could move back to the United States once his citizenship was confirmed. While he waited for confirmation, he was assigned to work at a railroad transportation office where he serviced a depot. He was given privileges to eat at the Army's mess hall which he thought was great. He saw General MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] quite frequently when he headed to the mess hall. Also, during this time, Yamamoto lived in a building that was owned by an affluential politician that his brother-in-law knew. [Annotator's Note: Interviewer pauses interview at 1:41:17.000 and it goes black until 1:41:33.000.]

Albert Yamamoto had to wait for his United States citizenship to be verified before he could return to home from Japan, so he worked for a railroad depot from May 1946 to January 1947. He finally made the trip home in June of 1947 and reunited with his family who he had been separated from for six and half years, and he had no communication with his parents until the Americans occupied Japan. His parents had relocated to Chicago [Annotator's Note: Chicago, Illinois] after the war. Yamamoto lived 70 miles away from Hiroshima [Annotator's Note: Hiroshima, Japan] when the United States dropped the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 1945]. He did not see the mushroom cloud because a large hill blocked the view but heard news reports of a bomb that had done great damage. As time went on, he learned the extent of the effects of the bomb. His family's greatest concern was the condition of his sister because she was working in a suburb of Hiroshima, called Kure [Annotator's Note: Kure, Japan]. It was a very traumatic experience for her and does not talk about it.

Albert Yamamoto returned to America [Annotator's Note: in June 1947 after being in Japan for six years as an American citizen] and enrolled in a community college with the help of an episcopal minister. After two years, he enrolled in the University of Chicago [Annotator's Note: in Chicago, Illinois] and majored in economics. Yamamoto did not face any racism towards him after the war. His parents were forced into an internment camp in Idaho during World War 2. His father had a hotel property in Seattle [Annotator's Note: Seattle, Washington] and a friend managed it while his father was interred in a camp. In 1949, the city of Seattle purchased the property to build a governmental building. His father left the internment camp in 1944 and went into the hotel business in Chicago. His parents did not talk about the internment camps very much. Yamamoto was upset about the bombing of his city in Japan, but he tried to not to show his true feelings throughout the war. The only mistreatment he spoke of was during his time at school because it was paramilitary.

Albert Yamamoto's [Annotator's Note: an American citizen who was in Japan during the war] most memorable experience of World War 2 was starving and being hungry all the time. His malnutrition from the wartime effected his health condition later in life. If he had not gone to Japan, he would have finished school earlier. He studied economics and mathematics. As he was attending college, Yamamoto made the mistake of transferring schools which made him eligible for the draft. He was drafted into the Unites States Army in May 1953 and took his basic training in Kentucky. The Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] ended before he finished his training, so he was given orders to go stationed in Tokyo, Japan at Camp Drake [Annotator's Note: in Asaka City, Japan] as part of Military Intelligence Language Specialists. He did clerical work for a year and a half. He has had the unique experience of seeing Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan] as an American when he was a child, right after the Japanese surrendered at the end of the war and then again when it was rebuilt in the 1950s. Albert was discharged as a corporal in 1955 right before his father passed away from cancer. Yamamoto was responsible of taking care of his father's affairs and managing his hotel. He eventually sold the property. Yamamoto served with some soldiers that participated in World War 2 but on a military intelligence level. During his service in Tokyo, the Japanese and Americans were very friendly. He enjoyed going out and visiting his sister in Tokyo. Yamamoto had a friend who was very influential in the global world. Yamamoto heard the emperor recording over radio for the first time ever after the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 1945] and Nagasaki [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, 9 August 1945]. It was a major event for the Japanese citizens because no one had heard the emperor's voice prior to this recording. It was also a major event because he stated that Japan was surrendering to America. Americans regret that World War 2 happened but are glad they won the war over Japan. The atomic bomb accelerated the war to an end. There should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and they should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations because it's the greatest war America has been in. It is important to be aware of history whether a country is the winner or the loser. [Annotator's Note: Video blacks out from 2:31:34.00 to 2:21:44.064.]